Man Tasered by cops near music festival was 'naked as the day he was born'

Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune

A portrait of Tom Carideo, as he stands near the shattered windshield of his car in Chicago on Sunday. Last night, Carideo was driving his car near the North Coast music festival on the city's Near West Side when a naked man threw his backside onto Carideo's windshield, shattering it. The man was later tasered , arrested and transported to a local hospital to remove the shards of glass.

A portrait of Tom Carideo, as he stands near the shattered windshield of his car in Chicago on Sunday. Last night, Carideo was driving his car near the North Coast music festival on the city's Near West Side when a naked man threw his backside onto Carideo's windshield, shattering it. The man was later tasered , arrested and transported to a local hospital to remove the shards of glass. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Peter Nickeas and Carlos SadoviTribune reporters

Tom Carideo was driving through the West Town neighborhood on his way to pick up his young children Saturday night when he did a double-take when he saw a naked man running through the streets.

Carideo was about to make a right turn onto Ogden Avenue from Randolph Street about 8:10 p.m. when he spotted the man and he began laughing.

“This guy was literally running in circles naked as the day he was born,” said Carideo. “Then he looks at my car and goes into a full-out sprint and jumps, landing ass first on the right side of my windshield and shatters it.”

Carideo said that as he looked in shock at the man through his shattered windshield, he grabbed for several hockey sticks that he happened to have inside his 2008 Mercedes sedan.

“I’m like, 'If this guy comes down to me I’m going to freaking swing my stick at him, he looks like a lunatic,'” said Carideo.

Carideo threw his car into park, grabbed his cell phone and called 911 to let police know that he was just attacked by a naked man. He said there were a number of people milling about in the area, apparently because of the nearby North Coast Music Festival at Union Park.

“I’m like, 'There’s a naked guy running around and he smashed my windshield,'” he said, adding that he let the dispatcher know the man was bleeding from his buttocks after shattering the windshield.

As he stayed on the line with the dispatchers Carideo followed in his car as the man ran south on Ogden, stopped at an intersection and began dancing around, Carideo said. He said the man then ran north on Ogden and dove into a puddle of water in the street.

“He starts drinking the water, it was disgusting,” said Carideo.

Carideo pulled over at Lake Street and Ogden and watched the man. When a police vehicle showed up, he waved the officers down and pointed out the man to police.

He said police asked the man several times to get on his knees but the man refused even after they threatened to shoot him with a stun gun.

“They warned him about three times, he tried to run away and then at them,” said Carideo. “That’s when they Tasered him.”

He said after the man fell to the ground he continued to resist and he believes police had to hit him with a stun gun again.

He said police handcuffed the man’s ankles and his hands and carried him into the police vehicle.

Police found the man’s pants several blocks away, in a flower bed in a street median. Carideo had to go to the police station to file a report. He estimates it will cost more than $500 to fix the damage to his vehicle.

Police charged the man, Sam Schauer, 22, of Auburndale, Massachusetts with the following: reckless damage to property, resisting/obstructing police, reckless conduct, aggravated assault and public indecency. He has to appear in court in Chicago on Sept. 27.

He was believed to be intoxicated or high on a hallucinogenic drug at the time, police said.

Schauer’s family in Massachusetts refused comment.

Schauer was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital for observation and to get shards of glass removed from his buttocks.

The North Coast Music Festival draws thousands of people to Union Park on the Near West Side and this year features performances from dozens of acts, including Nas, the Wu Tang Clan, and Mac Miller.

Carideo said he was glad that his children were not in his car at the time.

“I would have freaked out," said Carideo. "The cops did a nice job. They gave him plenty of warning."